Chapter 8: Chapter VIII: The Lost Ones

Ah, the stench. The smell of rotten meat and feces was unbearable. They threw Olivia inside a makeshift cage, Kai in the one beside her, and didn’t lift a finger to hide what was about to happen to them, with picked human bones scattered all around.

Everything here felt like a fever dream. Beyond this camp, where the ground met a sudden end, a ghostly pinkish light shot from the massive rift below like aurora, brighter than the wasteland at night.

“What is this place?” she asked.

Kai’s voice was low, weakened, as he rested his head against the bars of femurs.

“We simply call it... the Rifts.”

His eyes were dreamy as he looked at her through the bones; his consciousness was likely fading in and out as they spoke.

“You know... nothing, do you?” He asked.

“I know we should do something about our situation, quickly. Are you familiar with this kind of mutant?”

He inhaled deeply.

“I am... unfortunately—cough cough. The Lost Ones are vile and stupid, but... they are stronger... nothing... I...”

“Hey, Kai!” She reached through the bars and shook him. “Wake up!”

Olivia retrieved her hands when a mutant appeared in front of his cage and opened it.

He grabbed Kai’s arms.

“Wait for me... Mira,” he muttered as the brute yanked him out.

Her eyes widened.

Is it happening? If they eat him now... I’m next.

But the mutant dragged Kai to the left. The butcher and his macabre workshop were on the right.

“Oi!” She pressed against the cage. “Wait. Where are you taking him?”

The butcher limped towards her, a big scar bouncing on his belly, then smashed his cleaver against the bars with a grunt.

She fell back on her rear.

The message was clear.

Olivia waited for him to go away, then unfroze, scanning around her for something, anything that she could use against them.

But there wasn’t anything. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much left of the camp itself. The place was not just primitive; it showed signs of recent battle.

She caught a glimpse of a massive body pile poking above one of the wide tents. Big, deformed mutants, rotting under the sun.

“Who would attack a place like this?” she muttered.

Something glinted nearby. An empty shell casing partially buried under the dirt.

“Constantino...” Who else could it be? “What were you doing here?”

A rustle behind the cage interrupted her thoughts.

Olivia turned at the noise.

It was just small green bush. But bushes don’t rustle on their own, unless there is wind. There was none.

This place was infested with Biters, as the abnormal mutants seemed to use them as traps, she noticed when they brought her here.

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The bush trembled again, an arm away from her cage.

Olivia took a deep breath and unbuckled her belt.

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A Viker—a tiger from the wastelands, hairless, massive and covered in pustules—growled at him. The Lost Ones seemed amused, as chuckle-like grunts erupted around him. Though, there weren’t as many of them as he expected. Something must have culled their numbers recently.

The beast pounced at him.

Kai narrowed his eyes, trying to keep focus. He sidestepped as fast as he could.

Blood sprayed into the air as the Viker’s claws grazed his bare chest.

The creature continued, going straight to the mutant behind him. He grabbed the flailing Viker by the neck, trying to keep it from ripping his face off. The others came to help.

After some struggle, they managed to turn the creature back to Kai.

It attacked, hitting his shoulder this time. Kai staggered as a line of blood ran down his arm.

They cackled out loud.

Kai looked at them, at their rotten way of life, at their festering hovels that were but a mockery of his people’s, and he couldn’t feel anything but pity for them. These ones were beyond salvation.

There were broken weapons scattered on the ground of this arena, axe heads, clubs, half of a spear. Sometimes they threw this junk near his feet, likely hoping to spice things up.

As the Viker circled around him, studying him, Kai bent down to pick the rusty spear.

It looked strangely familiar. But it couldn’t be his father’s, could it?

“Did you fight here as well?”

The spear had no answers to give, but Kai already knew the answer in his heart.

A growl.

The Viker charged.

Kai spun towards it.

“Argh!”

The beast’s yellow eyes shot wide as the spearhead sunk into its exposed neck, blood dripping down on Kai’s face.

Limp, the Viker collapsed with a whimper, throwing Kai off balance with its weight. The cackles around him stopped.

He heaved himself to his feet again, looking around him.

They were not amused this time. It seems he wasn’t supposed to win.

Something groaned in the distance, as if rusty gates had just opened. The crowd split as two more Vikers emerged, mutants herding them at the point of spears.

He looked down at the spear in his hand.

There was a limit to what a warrior could accomplish on his own, and Kai was past his physical one as even this half weapon was getting heavy in his grip.

Nevertheless, Kai assumed a fighting stance as the Vikers approached, just like his father might have done, even if nothing else came out of it.

“Wait for me, Kade.”

More cages creaked open somewhere, bringing the faintest of smiles to his lips.

“I’m honored,” Kai muttered. “But I think two will be enough...”

A commotion among the spectating crowd. Shouts.

Kai frowned, trying to see past the incoming beasts.

More Vikers, but nobody herded these ones—they ran amok around the camp. A free-for-all broke out between them and the mutants.

Between the beasts and the beastly mutants, Kai caught a glimpse of a smaller figure running across the camp.

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Yes, it was a risk. But those creatures seemed to hate their masters as much as anyone else. The Biter was useful to break the cage and deal with the butcher.

The butcher’s limbs were good to entice the beasts inside the cages.

Olivia hoped Kai was still alive while she ran.

She checked the tents one by one, keeping to the shadows as much as possible while carnage reigned in the rest of camp.

He was nowhere to be found.

There was an odd concentration of mutants in the distance, now in disarray because of the beasts pouncing at them, but she couldn’t get near to search for Kai. That would be unreasonably risky.

There was one last tent to check.

She brushed the flap open and peeked inside, eyes burning from the putrid air.

It was dark. A red silhouette stretched on the ground.

“Kai,” she whispered.

He shifted, heaving himself up.

No. Kai was big, but not that big. Olivia covered her mouth, but it was too late.

She staggered backwards, leaving the tent.

He emerged out of the shadows, looming over her like a deformed gargoyle, red-skinned and covered in scars.

Olivia froze in fear as a hatchet appeared above her head.

“Shit.”

Metal flashed above her.

The hatchet fell limp to his side as the mutant’s head flung back, a spear lodged between his eyes.

Olivia spun.

Kai was coming her way, a group of mutants after him. He was covered in blood, wound on top of wound, but his speed was still impressive.

He grabbed her hand.

“Come with me,” he said.

“What’s the plan?”

“You can’t outrun them, and I can’t outrun them for much longer myself. We need to lose them in the Rifts.”

“The Rifts?” Olivia glanced at the incoming mutants, the back at him. She nodded. “Alright—”

Her eyes shot wide when Kai swung her to his back like a cape. He winced in pain.

Olivia realized she was squeezing the cut on his chest.

“Sorry! You caught me by surprise.”

He shook his head.

Kai glanced back at the dead mutant one last time, sadness in his eyes.

“Farewell, Father.”

Olivia blinked, confused.

He looked ahead.

“Let us go,” he said, then dashed across the camp.

Spears and clubs flew towards them, the waving wall of pinkish light growing taller as they approached the edge.

“So, this is the Rift... how are we getting down there?”

She couldn’t see the bottom, just a pit of light.

“Hold tight,” he said.

“What? Wait—”

Olivia’s heart skipped a beat when he leaped into it.